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First Impressions: Princess Twilight Sparkle
Disclaimer: This was written shortly after I saw the episode for the first time and may not reflect my final thoughts on the episode. Also, spoilers. Well I've got a new favorite two-part episode. Really, that's the extent of it. I really liked this two-parter. It finally got the pacing right, which already puts it ahead of Friendship is Magic, A Canterlot Wedding, and the Return of Harmony. It spent a decent amount of time setting up the scenario and gave us a nice payoff with a finishing adventure. Since there were no new villains in this episode, Meghan McCarthy's biggest weakness was completely eliminated. In fact, it seemed to erase a lot of the problems established with previous villains. For one, now I can actually see the threats behind Nightmare Moon (speaking of which, the little touches are back--Celestia's tear as she banishes her sister to the moon). I can already cross new creatures off of my wishlist. Sure enough stone crocodiles and giant venus flytraps aren't great, but it's definitely a start. And they've already addressed a lot of problems with Princess Twilight Sparkle, namely now she can't fly. Or actually sometimes she can and sometimes she can't. It seems pretty inconsistent actually. That brings me to a problem that I can already see brewing in the ether. Twilight's friends tell her to go back to Ponyville just in case they can't save Celestia and Luna. Here's the thing: they still have to learn lessons. A lot of people were concerned that Twilight's friends would be treating her differently. And they did, and they learned why they shouldn't, and they won't be doing it from now on. What I like most is that in a way it justifies all of the build-up in season 3. A lot of people complained that Magical Mystery Cure didn't tie in Discord, etc. Well Discord's back (and hilarious), and some of the techniques are back too. The Elements of Harmony are now done in CGI, and apparently they're rupees that grow in a tree. I guess that means now chocolate chip cookies for me . The crocodile thing may be in CGI too, but if it is their blending got a hell of a lot better from Spike at Your Service. Speaking of improvements--the lock box. That's a hell of a lot of an improvement from The Crystal Empire's two second look at a book thing. The animation definitely got a bump up. That battle with Nightmare Moon looked incredibly intense. And the updated intro was pretty cool, and a nice way to say that alicorn Twilight is staying around. In fact, the first ten minutes seemed to be saying that alicorn Twilight would be here to stay. We've got a bit more information and you can count me on the side that likes this. The friendship is still in tact as Twilight moves up in the world, and she has access to a whole new realm of possibilities. A potion that only resonates with alicorn magic? It seems that there are many things that she do now that she couldn't before. Okay... it's time for complaints. No episode is perfect. While most of the characters are perfectly done well, especially the important characters (Twilight and surprisingly Applejack). However, Pinkie (while still funny) seemed to be out of character. A coloring book is too juvenile, even for her. Besides that, this is an odd complaint, but besides being as cool as hell the Nightmare Moon flashback is it was pointless. I feel it's going to be like "The Smile Song"--the pointless part of the episode that is just so awesome that everyone forgives it. And Twilight's sonic rainboom-thingy at the end. Yeah... that probably wasn't a good idea. When I lay it out like that, the problems seem pretty minuscule. My full review will be out on Monday, but this episode definitely seems like it's going to get a gold ranking. It's definitely going to be an interesting season 4. Category:Miscellaneous